Hardwood Flooring Style & Timber Lead to Creative Results

Is there anything more sophisticated than hardwood flooring? Until recently - say the last twenty to thirty years - the trend was to cover these beauties with wall-to-wall carpeting. Today however, bare hardwood flooring is almost a staple in any upscale home and although it happens to be the bottom of any room, it's one of the first things that people see.

Why Choose Hardwood Flooring?

Properly installed, hardwood flooring not only complements an existing decor, it provides a secure and solid support for anyone with a family - small or large! Large families can especially appreciate these oak favorites because they have such a reputation for withstanding the demands of growing children, heavy furniture, rolling pianos, and anything else that would mar or dent any other type of floor.

For these reasons alone, the cost of installing hardwood flooring is well out-weighed by both its aesthetic and resale value. Research has proven a home filled with this type of service sells higher on the market than most others.

Have we caught your interest? Good - let's talk about the different styles available today. You can install hardwood flooring that's based off of four basic styles. We say, 'based off of' because knowing these basic styles, your installation can deviate from any one of them into something exotic, creative, and uniquely beautiful.

Available Styles

The most common style of hardwood flooring is known as 'strip flooring,' and it's probably the style that you've repeatedly seen over the years. Strip flooring lays strips of hardwood (in various lengths and thicknesses) onto the floor.

Plank flooring on the other hand, lays planks (up to nine inches wide) onto the floor with beveled edges - an attempt to emulate an older appearance.

Parquet flooring consists of hardwood that is cut in identical widths and lengths, but laid in a unique pattern to create a design.

Block flooring is similar to parquet flooring however it's the grain of the wood that's used to create a pattern. You might have seen this look - where the grains of the wood point in different directions.

Types of Wood

Oak has almost always been the hardwood flooring preference, however today, more and more homeowners like are you exploring other options like pecan, maple, birch, or beech. The exciting thing about these different options is that they present a wider range of colors. Each of these timbers presents their own unique collection of hues and tints that help to bring out the existing beauty of your home.

With a little creative forethought, you can combine the distinctive properties of wood types with one of the above mentioned style types to build a floor that will become the center of attention in your home!

Communication is Key

Your success of course, depends on how well you communicate your ideas with your hardware flooring contractor. Take the time to draw up a plan that specifies the style you want (see above) in addition to the kind of wood you want installed. Present your plan to your contractor so that the both of you can work together and create the home improvement masterpiece that's not only possible, but also that you've imagined for all these years.

Author Paul White represents FloridaHomeBuild.com. A site designed to help home owners from Florida locate local home contractors with their home improvement projects.
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